Armed forces day

It's armed forces day in the UK today.  The idea is to show appreciation and support for all the members of our forces, current and past.  Our local event is running at Chalkwell park, so I donned cammo shirt with my veterans badge on it and ambled down to see what was happening.  Event was on from 10:00 to 17:00, we arrived around 12:30.

Not an awful lot there.  A Beach boys tribute band was playing, a few tents with refreshments and photo displays, and a couple of tents for help the heroes and other charities.  One field gun and accompanying landie where the only military exhibits.  A couple of dozen WWII veterans were standing around with berets and blazers.

Maybe we were too early and more people turned up after we'd gone, but it was very disappointing at the lack of support - and the lack of exhibits at the event.  I was expecting stands for the local territorial regiments with their equipment on display and maybe regular forces recruiting stands.  Thinking about it there was one small RAF recruiting stand, but nobody visible manning it.

Maybe all the regulars and TA forces are abroad in action.  The lack of commitment by successive governments to keep the forces up to a reasonable size for the wars they want to fight stretches the few soldiers left too far.

There's another event down on the seafront tomorrow, hope this is better attended.

I really don't know enough to judge if we should be fighting in Afghanistan or involved in Iraq and Libya.  If the politicians decide our troops need to be there, they must get the number of troops and all the gear they need to do the job.  It's not easy for the civilian population to be behind the army in these actions as they're not as clear cut as defending British soil from an alien invader.  Even if you're not fully behind the actions they're involved in you've got to support and admire the dedication and professionalism of the individual soldiers in their many roles.